Call for urgent action on notorious Erris blackspot
A COUNTY councillor has called for a treacherous blot on the Mayo road network – the junction of the R312 and the N59 close to Bellacorick – to be eliminated before lives are lost there.
Councillor Michael Loftus is calling for crash barriers to be erected immediately at the location which has been the scene of a number of serious accidents over the years.
His preferred long-term solution, however, is for Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) to recommence work on a new stretch of road – a project which was started some three decades ago but was later abandoned.
The serpentine R312 (Derrycoosh to Bellacorick) is already infamous because of its narrowness, bumps and twisting bends. As it connects with the N59 there is a further notorious blackspot.
At the weekend, the FF councillor showed The Connaught Telegraph where the parapet wall at the bridge on the sharp bend has been badly breached by a number of vehicles travelling westwards from the Crossmolina direction.
A flimsy plastic barrier is all that exists to stop out of control vehicles tumbling down a 12-foot ravine into a stream, which is fast flowing in wintertime.
“A proper crash barrier should be built,” Councillor Loftus urged. “Ironically, there is a crash barrier further down the road towards 'Corick, which is serving no purpose.”
Some 30 years ago, according to Councillor Loftus, a short stretch of new road was started which would have eliminated the treacherous bend altogether.
With a fleet of heavy lorries daily supplying vast quantities of stone and gravel to a huge local windfarm (Oweninny) project, Councillor Loftus says it is more imperative than ever that the unsafe junction be eliminated.
It's totally within the remit – and financial wherewithal - of TII to do this, he argues.
On a personal level, Councillor Loftus, a keen cyclist, has reason to dread the danger to road users caused by the lack of road markings at the junction.
Earlier this year, while traveling west on a charity cycle to Belmullet, he was almost sent flying by a motorist who came 'flying through the junction' without stopping.
“I was going around correctly,” he explained. “I had the right of way. He, technically, should have stopped but he didn't. There were no markings there to tell the driver he should have stopped.”
Senior gardaí are backing up Councillor Loftus up in his campaign to have the bend made safer and then eliminated altogether by means of a short bypass.